Watching Sean Dyche applaud the Goodison Park crowd after a 1-0 victory - for the second time in as many home games - almost served as a tease to Leeds United chiefs. Pre-match talk centred around the game being a monumental six-pointer.
Afterwards, there was only one discussion point from a Leeds perspective: get a manager in - and fast.
The Whites are entering their third week without a permanent boss. It is now clear there was no plan from Andrea Radrizzani and Co once Jesse Marsch was sacked. With each passing game, another nail is hammered into Leeds’ relegation coffin.
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Everton were the Premier League laughing stock a month ago, cemented firmly in the bottom three. A lot can change quickly in football as, just 26 days after sacking Frank Lampard, Saturday’s victory over Leeds saw the Toffees switch places with their opponents in the league and on the embarrassment front.
The Toffees board, unlike Leeds, wasted no time in identifying their next man. After 10 months out of the game, Dyche arrived on Merseyside with one remit: keep this club up.
While Leeds were dawdling, backing a manager in the transfer market before firing him a week later, Dyche was free for the taking. Perhaps, due to football snobbery or craving to appoint another hipster coach, the Elland Road hierarchy would never have considered the 51-year-old.
A no-nonsense, tell-it-how-it-is manager, there is an unjust stigma attached to Dyche. His approach may be simplistic, but it is certainly effective. Ask any Burnley fan who enjoyed six consecutive years of Premier League football on a shoestring budget, and they will tell you that.
In his first post-match press conference as Everton boss, minutes after defeating league leaders Arsenal, Dyche declared: “The minimum requirement is maximum effort.”
Is that not the kind of rhetoric Leeds United need right now? Just two weeks separated Lampard and Marsch’s sacking. Had Dyche been in the away dugout, could the Whites have won that game?
Crying over spilled milk may seem futile but at least Everton have provided United with the blueprint for top-flight survival. Until a hungry, Premier League-proven manager showed up, the Toffees were toast.
Nobody has a magic wand to fix Leeds’ catalogue of problems but appointing someone with experience in the division is as close as Radrizzani and Victor Orta could get. Nuno Espirito Santo and Rafa Benitez have been good enough for several elite clubs throughout their careers, there is no reason why Leeds cannot be either manager’s next destination.
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